The present invention relates to a package of a photosensitive material. In particular, the present invention relates to a package of a photosensitive material comprising a miniaturized sealed container containing a photosensitive material composed of a support having a water content of 1.5% by weight or less. The shelf-life of the photosensitive material in the package is equal to or longer than that of conventional photosensitive materials.
Recent improvements in silver halide photographic films and cameras have been accompanied by increased interest in high-quality photographic images. This has led to rising popularity for 35 mm single lens reflex cameras and 35 mm compact cameras.
The cameras using 35 mm roll film and the roll film itself are disadvantageous in that they are large in size and not handy to carry. Under these circumstances, miniaturized cameras such as the 110 camera and the disc camera were developed. However, since the exposed image area in these small cameras is smaller than that of a 35 mm camera, the quality of the image is inferior to that of conventional photographs. They are thus incompatible with the demand for high-quality images. As a result, these cameras have found little acceptance among users.
In order to reduce the size and weight of a camera without sacrificing the exposed image area, it is necessary to miniaturize only the cartridge while leaving the 35 mm film as it is. From the viewpoint of easy portability of the film, it is necessary to miniaturize not only the cartridge but also the closed cartridge case (patrone case; usually called "P case") for keeping the photosensitive material from surrounding harmful gas.
Through investigations concerning the miniaturization of the cartridge and P case, the inventors found that when a photosensitive material is kept in a miniaturized P case, bad influences are exerted on the photographic properties, particularly shelf-life, of the photosensitive material, while such bad influences are not observed when the material is kept in a conventional P case.